March 18, 2012

Download web videos with Movgrab

Download Web Videos With The Command Line Using Movgrab [Linux]
February 25, 2012, By Justin Pot

Use the command line to quickly download videos from YouTube, Vimeo,
Ted, Discovery and over 40 other sites using one simple program. It’s
called MovGrab and it’s a great, free program for Linux.
We’ve shown you a few easy ways to download online videos, and Linux and Mac users can check out check out Clipgrab for basic video downloading.
It’s hard to match Movgrab, though, in terms of the sheer number of
sites it supports. As of this writing, 45 different sites are supported.
Combine this with a simple command-line interface – all you need to do
is type the name of the program followed by the URL of the file – and
MovGrab is a program worth having for anyone who likes to watch their
online video offline.

Basic Usage

Are you familar with the terminal? The basic command here isn’t that hard, then. Just browse using cd to the folder where you’d like to store your download, then type movgrab followed by the URL of the video you’d like to download.
For example: if you’d like to download Nyan Cat (and you would), the command would would be movgrab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4.
Here’s what the command looks like when it’s running:

You should do this right now, and watch Nyan Cat on a continuous loop
for the rest of your life. At the very least there should be a computer
in your house that is always playing it, music and all.

The basic process is pretty much the same for any video, regardless
of where it’s hosted. Here’s me dowloading a video about trick
photography from Ted:

Once the download is done, you’ll find the video in the folder your Terminal was set to. Here’s me watching my Ted download:

Wasn’t that easy?

A Few Advanced Features

Do you want to know what this program can really do? Type movgrab -h
to see the full instructions. Command line experts will be able to
figure out pretty much everything based on that, but let’s go over the
highlights.

If you want the download to happen in the background just add -b to the command. The download will happen in the background, letting you use your terminal for other things.

If you want to continue a download you started earlier, you can add -r to the command.

If you want to pick a particular format, you’ll need to do two things. First: use the -T option to get a list of your options. Then, run the command again using the -foption followed by the format of your choice. For example, downloading Nyan Cat, I would use this command:movgrab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4 -f webm:845x480It’s the same command, just followed by -f and the format I’d like to download the video from.

Do you want to see which sites are and aren’t working? Run movgrab -test-sites and your computer will test each and every supported site. If many are broken, it may be time to update Movgrab.
There’s a lot more this program can do, so be sure to check out the -h option to get a complete rundown.

Installing MovGrab

I found this program thanks to a great article on WebUpd8,
a site I recommend you all check out. That site’s PPA is probably the
simplest way for Ubuntu users to install MovGrab, and all you need to do
is enter the following three commands in the terminal:sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install movgrab
You’ll need a relatively recent version of Ubuntu for the first command to work.
Users of other operating systems can grab the source code at the movgrab homepage.
You’ll need to compile the source code yourself, but it’s not anymore
complicated than the standard configure, make and make install.
Get a Linux geek to help you out if you’re not sure what that means!

Supported Services

This program supports a lot of different sites. Some may or may not be working, but here is a currently complete list:

YouTube

Metacafe

Dailymotion

Vimeo

Break.com

eHow

5min.com

vbox7

lip.tv

Ted

MyVideo

ClipShack

MyTopClip

RedBalcony

Mobando

Yale University

Princeton University

Reuters

LiveLeak

Academic Earth

Photobucket

VideoEmo

VideosFacebook

Aljazeera

Mefeedia

IViewTube

Washington Post

CBS News

Euro News

MetaTube

MotionFeeds

Escapist

Guardian

RedOrbit

Sciive

Izlese

uctv.tv

royalsociety.tv

British Academy

Kitp

Dotsub

Astronomy.com

Teachertube.com

Discovery

Bloomberg.com

Conclusion

This is simply a must-have video downloader for anyone who wants to
download from a wide variety of sites. The command-line interface may
make it inaccessible to some, but those who take the time to figure it
out won’t be disappointed.
How do you like this program? Please leave a note in the comments below, along with any recommended similar software.